LOS ANGELES — Antero Niittymaki has the best post-season save percentage of any netminder in the NHL.

He’s faced 30 shots in parts of two games, stopping all but one of them, and if you do the math, that’s .967. Second best? Michael Neuvirth of Washington at .946.

Niittymaki also has the NHL’s best goals against average for the playoffs at 0.66.

But he also says he totally understands why Antti Niemi is getting the start Monday night in Game 6.

“After I got hurt, I haven’t really played after that and I don’t expect to jump in there and start in the playoffs,” Niittymaki said after this morning’s skate. “Nemo’s been pretty solid here the last three months or so.

“It’s playoffs, things happen,” the backup continued, “he’s bounced back before and I have no problem with that.”

As far as the success he’s had so far, Niittymaki indicated it was a big help to get into Game 5 as soon as he did, less than nine minutes into the first period.

“It’s better the earlier you go in because you just had a warm-up.” he said. “But sometimes you go in the middle of a game or late in the second half and it’s a lot tougher.”

There were lots of follow-up questions for Todd McLellan today on his decision to go with Niemi, and the explanation was pretty much as he outlined it on Sunday.

But he also talked more at length about how coaches are not necessarily singling out a goalie when the netminder gets yanked.

“You can pull a defenseman or a forward off and send a message real quick, but usually he’s going to get back out there,” McLellan said. “The goaltender is the one that gets welded to the bench unfortunately.

“You hear coaches talk about it all the time. You’re not just pulling a goaltender because of his performance. You’re pulling him to wake the rest of the group up and send a message,” he added. “That’s also been the case in our scenario.”

McLellan added that Niittymaki isn’t a “forgotten man.”

“He’s approached and dealt with like everybody else on the team. We’ve talked to him and he understands where he’s at,” the coach said. “And he’s completely prepared to come in and do the job.”

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